Teaching English Writing in China

Education

Question:Topic:Teaching English Writing in China—Compare Results-based Pedagogy and Process-based Pedagogy

You will write a critical commentary of a curriculum, pedagogy or assessment. This may be from an official document (e.g. produced by a Ministry of Education or an extract from a White Paper) or a research article introducing or promoting a certain approach to curriculum, pedagogy or assessment. When writing this assignment you should refer to the criteria for assessment below. (4,000 words).

Assessment Criteria

The assignment should demonstrate that you have:

• Identified a suitable curriculum, pedagogy or assessment to critically discuss;

• selected or developed appropriate frameworks for the critique;

• made use of original sources and quoted from them;

• made use of selected and appropriate literature to identify and amplify issues, and constructed a range of debates relevant to the critique of the chosen policy or approach;

• provided some evidence of discussion, analysis and reflection, which goes beyond description, unsubstantiated opinion and/or rhetoric;

• written the assignment giving thought to logical organisation in terms of structure and argument.

Further guidance on Assignment 1

This assignment is designed to offer you the opportunity to look critically at some educational issue or artefact that is of academic interest to you. You may choose to critically review a policy documents that outlines a certain curriculum, assessment or pedagogic approach. You are required to draw on other research literature within your chosen field to critically review the issue or artefact you have identified.

You will be asked to choose your topic by the middle of October and we will spend some time discussing this choice during taught sessions early in the term. Your choice of topic may be a reflection of your personal interest or it may be prompted by reading material that you come across during the first semester either in sessions or through your private study.

You will also need to read books and articles relevant to your critical commentary. Your reading will help you to:

• choose aspects of the issue, artefacts or approach you plan to critically review;

• choose arguments that will contribute to your critique;

• find a language for the critique you are making.

You will need to briefly describe the key features of the document or research article that you are critiquing but the majority of the word allowance should be used on the critical analysis, rather than description.